Kristen Jordan Shamus: Safer America is one with smarter gun laws

March 3, 2013

MCT

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

It can happen in a small-town elementary school, where little children are learning their ABCs.

It can happen in a Colorado movie theater, where people thought it'd be fun to be the first to see the new "Batman" movie.

It can happen while you're driving down I-96 or US-23, listening to the radio, thinking about what to make for dinner.

And it can happen at a cell phone store in Canton, where Gerry Soubly and his girlfriend, Carol Nowaczyk, shopped for a new iPhone 4s on Monday morning.

It happened to them as the sun streamed through three walls of windows at the Verizon Cellular & More store on Ford Road. The glass let the light in, but it also made the outside visible on three sides.

Those windows allowed an employee to see three men in ski masks and black hoodies run around the store that morning.

"He calls out, 'Call 911. We're going to be robbed,' " says Soubly, 64, of Canton. The worker then raced to the front doors, sliding a lock just as the three men -- one with a tactical assault rifle -- were about to enter.

"That action gave us a chance to hide," says Nowaczyk, 70, of Sterling Heights. "If they'd have walked in the door and we were all standing there, I don't know what would have happened."

The couple gives this account of what unfolded next: They hit the floor, hiding behind a small service desk. The worker dashed off to a corner, crouching down.

The masked men outside began kicking the glass doors. One banged the glass with the end of the gun before finally shooting his way inside.

The sound of shattering glass was deafening.

"Honestly, I had a feeling that they were going to walk around and kill everybody," Soubly says. "I really thought that we were going to die. ... I thought who in their right mind walks in at 11 o'clock in the morning on a busy street with an assault rifle in front of everybody? These guys were oblivious to everything else. Their adrenaline is rushing. Anything could have happened."

At least one gunman was able to enter the store -- and he grabbed cell phones as fast as he could, even as alarms sounded.

"So they run out of the store on foot, and down the block. They had a car parked, and they get in the car," Soubly says.

Soubly and Nowaczyk were the lucky ones. They escaped with their lives.

Thousands of others haven't been as lucky.

In Michigan, the number of people who died from bullets exceeded the number who died in traffic crashes in 2009, according to research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state recorded 1,095 gun deaths that year, and 977 motor vehicle deaths.

Nationally, 31,236 died because of firearms in 2009 alone.

I have a hard time believing this kind of America is what the founding fathers had in mind when they drafted the Second Amendment. I have a hard time believing that any of the men who collaborated on the constitution wanted our nation to be a place where you ought to be afraid every time you step out of your home -- and in some neighborhoods, even be afraid to be inside.

Gun violence in America is too common.

Assault weapons are getting into the hands of the wrong people. "In light of what happened, I'd love to see these ... outlawed," Soubly says. "I don't have any problem with hunters, or with people owning guns, or with pistols. But these assault weapons, they're so powerful. ... As far as I'm concerned, get rid of them."

Amen.

There is something you can do, something we all can do to be heard on this issue.

You can join Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America (www.momsdemandaction.org). The group plans a March 13 rally in Washington, D.C., asking lawmakers to adopt a ban on assault weapons and ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds; require background checks on gun and ammunition purchases; report large sales of ammunition to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and ban online ammunition sales.

You can call your representatives in the U.S. House and Senate. Let your voice be heard.

Because who wants to live in a place where attending school or driving home from work or shopping for a cell phone can become a harrowing experience?

Other senators may be reached by name through the Capitol switchboard, 202-224-3121, or by mail, in care of the senator, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510.

U.S. House

Constituents can reach their representatives at www.house.gov/representatives/find. Call House members by name at 202-225-3121. Write to a member in care of U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515.